Friday, November 25, 2005

And The Sandy Berger Award Goes To....

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is coming clean on his draft record. The baseball draft, that is.

For nearly four decades, Richardson, a prominent Democrat frequently mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, has maintained he was drafted as a pitcher in 1966 by the Kansas City Athletics.

But an Albuquerque Journal investigation found no record of Richardson being drafted by the A's, who have since moved to Oakland, or any other team. Informed by the newspaper of its findings, the governor acknowledged the error in a story published Thursday by the paper.

“After being notified of the situation (by Journal reporter Toby Smith) and after researching the matter ... I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A's,” Richardson said.

Richardson included the fact in a brief biography released when he successfully ran for Congress in 1982. The Clinton White House mentioned it in a 1997 news release, when Richardson was about to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Over the years, several media organizations have reported it as fact, including The Associated Press, the New York Times and New Republic magazine, along with political almanacs.

Paul Reichler, an attorney in Washington, D.C., was sports editor of the Tufts student newspaper in the 1960s and remains friends with Richardson. Reichler confirmed there was “so much interest in him” as a pitcher.

“But maybe his desire to be drafted was so strong that he convinced himself that it actually happened,” Reichler said.

"After being notified of the situation...I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A's."

Richardson comes across as an idiot. But then what do you say after allowing the story to be circulated in the media for twenty years? "I lied" would be the appropriate response.

Odd that no one ever thought to check on the story before now.

What's with the Sandy Berger Award? How is lying about being drafted by major league baseball like stealing classified documents?

One Sandy Berger story that no one has ever clarified as far as I know is about an aborted Sunni coup in Syria in the summer of 1999.

Yossef Bodansky, a hard right winger, wrote a book, "The High Cost of Peace". In Chapter 17, "The Road to Damascus", he wrote that, in 1999, the Clinton administration initially supported a planned coup by moderate Sunnis to overthrow Hafiz Assad, Bashir's father.

According to Bodansky, the Clinton administration changed its mind about supporting the coup at the last minute. In August 1999, Sandy Berger ordered the US ambassador to Syria to give Assad a list of the names of coup participants as Assad was leaving to attend the funeral of the King of Morocco. A purge resulted.

I've never read anything more about this aborted Syrian coup. I f the story is true, Bill Clinton and Sandy Berger knowingly caused the death or imprisonment of those Sunni Syrians. Rank incompetence or something else?

Bodansky, however, never mentions in his book that James A. Baker III and Edward Djernian, as private citizens, met with Assad in Damascus in June 1999. They were accompanied by the US ambassador. Baker and Djernian then went on to meet with Prime Minister Hoss of Lebanon in Beirut.

In July 1999, Enron and the Palestinian Authority announced a joint venture to build a power plant in Gaza. But by July 1999, I'm fairly certain that Enron knew it would not have the resources to build a plant in Gaza. The project was controversial from what I have read.

In May 1999, Ehud Barak was elected prime minister of Israel.

During 1999, George W. Bush announced his intention to run for president.

This is slightly above who cares, along with Jessica and Nick, Britney, Brad or Angelina; maybe his peeps fed him the news to boost his ego at the time. I always wonder how much of that stuff that is those who's who books is accurate, since anyone can be entered as long as they pay up. Tom Delay, uses a direct marketing tactic to collect funds for the GOP. You'll get a call from his office, you listen to a recorded message by Delay, and if you cough of money, you'll get a national leadership award. I've seen people put this "award" on their resume.

It just seems, especially today, that this is minor compared to how people exaggerate. This seems to be a trait of many politicians.

somehow i find that "desire for" a trumped up and illegal war" a hell of a lot more damning and hateful than anything richardson may have done.

but then, if ya wanna carry water then make up your mind. who gives a shit about blue dresses or white lies that hurt noone, when you have a sick and depraved regime in the white house and on capitol hill?

war crimes and crimes against humanity and our nation, now that deserves attention!

the "christian" (so called) agenda of hate and inhumanity, now that is something to get my back up!

the destruction of our civil rights and constitution to turn us so swiftly and easily to a fascist state,... now there's something to sink your teeth in!

twisted reality begins between the ears! figure out what your priorities are and if this is one of em, i'm not gonna waste my time.

Of course this is not important, but as a person who cannot vote for any republican in view of all the recent shenanigans, I expect integrity from the democrats. Each time one of these admittedly unimportant little lies comes to light, I'm disappointed.

In a similar situation, after assiduous investigation, I have concluded that I was not offered sex by Salma Hayek.

Don't forget, this is the same Bill Richardson who is governor of New Mexico, a state that ranks 48th in education, and looks to Mississippi for inspiration. The state currently is running a revenue surplus, so, mindful of its execrable performance on education, the Governor pushed a bill through the state legislature to refund money to taxpayers. In this way, he can run in 2008 as A Democrat Who Cut Taxes, but did nothing to improve education for the poorest New Mexicans.

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